This volume presents a unique collection of contributions describing the latest developments in the field of multibody system dynamics. It includes the results of a nationwide five year research project by the German Research Council to determine: *Research on fundamental methods of multibody systems; *Concepts for new formalisms of dynamical analysis; *Development of efficient numerical algorithms; *Realization of a powerful software package of multibody systems. Contributions are of an interdisciplinary nature with research from the fields of mathematics, computer science, mechanics and control theory, and thus the volume will be invaluable to engineers and scientists working in these areas.